Dive Brief:
- The district attorney’s office for Santa Clara County, California, charged six former Apple employees for allegedly defrauding the company and state by way of a charity donation scheme, according to a Dec. 3 press release.
- Under the scheme, a group of the employees donated through Apple’s gift-matching program to two children’s charities with whom another employee served, officials claimed. Apple matched the donations at a rate of either 100% or 200%. The employee who worked for the charities pocketed Apple’s matching funds and returned the other employees’ donations — which were then written off by the donors on their tax returns, the district attorney’s office alleged.
- The ex-employees extracted approximately $152,000 from Apple’s gift-matching program and overreported about $100,000 in donations as tax deductions, officials said. The defendants face multiple felony offenses and, if convicted, may face jail time, fines and fees or may be forced to pay back restitution.
Dive Insight:
Apple worked with the office to uncover the scheme, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in the statement. “We encourage others in the tech community to do the same,” Rosen added. “It’s the holidays. Give — legally — to help the needy, not to help yourself.”
Occupational fraud is an international problem and a costly one for employers. A 2022 study of more than 2,100 occupational fraud cases by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners found an average loss of more than $1.7 million and total losses in excess of $3.6 billion. Overall, ACFE said industry professionals estimated that organizations lose 5% of their revenues to occupational fraud each year.
Fraud can affect HR operations in other ways, particularly in the recruitment context. A recent McAfee report found that the number of online job scams has grown thanks in part to the use of artificial intelligence. Methods such as the use of fake job listings and social media profiles that pose as recruiters result in a median loss per victim of about $2,000, McAfee said.
Conversely, employers may also be defrauded by fake job applicants. In one noteworthy story earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice claimed that a group of North Korean information technology workers who falsified employment eligibility verification forms netted at least $6.8 million from more than 300 U.S. companies.